Refrigerated dispensing cabinet



Aug. l0, 1948. M. RlFKlN 2,446,788

v REFRIGERATED DISPENSING CABINET Filed Aug. e, 1945 s sheets-sheet 1v B,3 bg'gg.

Aug.1o,194s. MRW-K1N y2,446,783

REFR'IGBRATED msrENsING CABINET Filed Aug. 6, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 2T7-omver. i

`ug. l0, 1948. M, R|FK|N 2,446,788

REFRIGBRATED DISPENSING CABINET Y Filed Aug. 6, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 oogllgl,

oelell: aboga j Ill ll "nh L ulm M ATTORNC )f Patented Aug. 10, 1948amaai REFRIGERATEUDISPENSING CABINET Milton aman, einem, m, minor, bymme assignments, to Frez-O-Mat Sales Corporation, a corporation oiIllinolsr Application August 6, 1945, Serial No. 609,055r

(ci. i2-1oz) 'I'hls invention relates to a refrigerated food dispensingcabinet, and has for its principal object the provision of a cabinet inwhich frozen packages will be held in separated classified compartments,from which the desired package may be removed without opening thecabinet to outside air.

Another object of theinvention is to provide a refrigerating system fora cabinet of this character which will always maintain a slight airpressure within the cabinet to prevent warm air from entering from theexterior.

A further object is to provide a dispensing mechanism which will deliverone package at a time; which will be adjustable for various sizes ofpackages; which will allow fresh packages to be quickly and easilyinserted; and which will give a suitable indication when the packagesshould be replenished.

Other objects and advantages reside in the vdetail construction of theinvention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and eiciency.These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is hadto the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numeralsreferto like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout thedescription.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a front view of the improved refrigerating dispensing cabinetpartially broken away to show the interior mechanism;

Fig. 2 is a side View thereof, similarly broken away;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged, detail section through a portion of the cabinetillustrating one of the dispensing mechanisms;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View illustrating one of the package slidesemployed in the improved cabinet;

Fig. 51s a detail perspective view illustrating proved cabinet,illustrating an annunciator which form. of door, taken on the line II-II, Fig. w10;

and

Fig. 12` is a longitudinal section through the latter door, taken on theline I 2--I2, Fig. 11.

The improved cabinet, designated in its entirety by the numeral I0, maybe any of the usual refrigerator constructions. such as having an innerwall II and an outer .wall I2 separated by suitable heat insulation I3.The cabinet contains storage compartments I4, closed by means of doorsI5, and positioned at the bottom thereof. At the top thereof, a motorcompartment I6 is provided alongside of a refrigerating compartment I1,the latter being closed by a suitable lid I8.

Between the storage compartments I4 and the compartments I6 and Il, thefront of the cabinet contains a plurality of small doors I9 closingpackage delivery openings 20 in the front of the cabinet. A peripheralsealing gasket 2| surrounds each of the doors I9 and contacts the frontof the cabinet to seal the door thereto when in the closed position.Each door is also provided with a block of heat insulating material 22rsecured inwardly into the cabinet each pair being in alignment with oneof the package openings 2B. The

.slide tracks are secured to the inner wall II by means of U-shapedattachment clips 25,.and are maintained in proper parallel, spacedrelation by means of U-shaped cross braces 26. The tracks 24 are formedfrom angle-iron with their convex sides turned inwardly to form asupport and guide for a row of frozen foods packages, indicated at 21.n'

Each row of packages is forced` forwardly toward the door-opening 20 bymeans of a pusher block 28. The pusher block is arranged to slide alongthe tracks 24, and is held in slidable relation thereon by means ofunderlapping clips 29, which extend beneath the tracks 24. The pusherblock 28 is urged forwardly by means of a ratchet rack bar 30 havingforwardly facing teeth along its upper edge.

l The'teeth of the rack bar 30 engage a hinged pawl 3l which is mountedon a pivot pin 32 in a pawl bracket 33 on the rear of the pusher block28. r`The extremities of the pawltbracket 33 engage 3 the slides of therack bar 3l to maintain the block 28 at t angles therewith. The downwardmovem t of the pawl 3| is by means of a stop pin 34.

It can be seen that each forward movement of inwardly by means of atension spring .35 which is secured at its forward extremity to a springhook 35 on the rack bar 38 and at its rearwardly extremity to therearmost cross brace 25, asshown at 58.

'I'he rack bar 38 is moved forwardly by the openof a flexible cable 31.The cable 31 extends from a. terminal itting 38 attached to the door i8beneath a roller 39. attached to the bottom of the frame of he opening20, thence through a hole in the extremity of the rack bar 38 and backto the fitting 38.' The two extremities of the cable are clamped in thefitting by means of a clamp block 48. In the fitting 38 the two reachesof the cable extend beneath a bending pin 4|,ltl1e position of which isadjustable in a series of pin holes 42.

The doors I3 are mounted on hinge pins 43 ex- Y to the point ofattachment of the cable 31. That is, if the pin 4| is in the pin h'ole42 closest to the axis of the hinge pin 43, the distance the cable ispulled at each opening of the door will be less than it would be if thepin 4| were in the pin hole 42 furtherest from the axis of the hingepin. The pin 4| is pre-set to accommodate packages of variousthicknesses. The `thicker packages, of course, require a longer movementof the rack bar 38 than the thinner packages.

Since the only means of access to the cabinet is through the doors I8,it is necessary that some means be provided to release the pusher block28 so that it can be forced inwardlyV to allow the insertion of freshpackages. This is accomplished in the present invention by mountingtherack bar 38 upon supporting pins 45 in the cross braces 26. The pins45 pass through guide plates 48 secured on each side of the rack bar 38and projecting therebelow. The plates 46 are provided ing motion of thedoor I8 through the medium 4 and are clamped in place therein by meansof leaf springs 5I, as shown in detail in Fig. 5. The flexible ap 48 ofthe top and bottom strips 88 is notchedas shown at 52 in Fig. 8 to allowthe exible flaps of the side strips 88 to join therewith. 'I'heremovable strips 88 are for the purpose of accommodating packages ofvarious sizes. These strips will'be supplied with ilexible flaps 48 ofvarious widths so that the opening i'n' the sealing frame can beadjusted to suit th'e size of any given package. Y

It can be readily seen from the above description that a patron canselect the desired door .Il containing the desired packages, and bysimply pulling this door outwardly and downwardly can cause the pusherblock 28 to move the packages in the row suiiiciently far forward todeliverY one package and seal the cabinet with the next package.

The cabinet is kept filled with coldv dehydrated air under slightlyhigher than atmospheric pressure at al1 times. This is accomplished bymounting a circulating fan 52 in the refrigerating compartment I1. Thefan 52 is driven .from a suitable motor 53. A small pressure blower 54is also driven from the motor 53 and draws its air with horizontallyextending slotted openings 41 through'which the pins 45 pass. The innerextremitles of the openings 41 are enlarged upwardly as shown atl 48.When the door I9 is fully opened, the rack barv 38 will be pulled sum- Yciently far forward to. allow the. enlarged extremities 48 of the slots41 to drop over the pins 45. This'allows the entire rack bar to drop sothat it will no longer engage the pawl 3l. Thus, the pusher block 28 isreleased and can be forced inwardly by the insertionof fresh packages.

embrace of a ilexible sealing frame which seals the interior of thecabinet from the exterior while the .door is open.

v in

70 'I'he sealing frame consists of four removable` elongated strips 88,each ofwhich carriesa iiexfrom the exterior of the cabinet through anair intake tube 55. 'I'he fan 52 blows the air through a cooling anddehydrating coil 58 which is kept chilled from any suitablerefrigerating mecha nism 51. v

The cooled, dehydrated air enters the food compartment through anelongated slot 18, adiacent the front wall thereof and flows rearwardlyand downwardly to ports 1I in the rear wall and through a port 58 intothe storage compartments The ports 1I opento a return duct 58 at theback of the cabinet which returns the air to the fan 52. It will benoted that the ports' 1| increase in size as the bottom of the foodcabinet is approached in order to attain a uniform ilow through theentire cabinet.

The capacity of the blower 54 is such as to maintain a slight pressureon the air in the housing. When this pressure is reached, no lfurtherair'will be drawn into the intake 55. Should any air escape through thedoors or compartments, the pressure will be lowered and the blower willthen build it up to the predetermined point.

The lowermost tubes of the cooling coil 58 are provided with electricalheating elements 60. The current to the heating elements 68 iscontrolled by means of a clock switch 8l, which at pre-set intervalsacts to shut oir the current to the fan motor 53 and turn the vcurrentinto the heating elements 60 to heat the coils 5B sufliciently to meltthe frost therefrom.-

'I'he melting frost drips into 'a drip pan 52 and is conducted awaythrough a drain pipe 63; thus the coils will be defrosted at regularintervals to maintain the efdciency of the cooling and dehydratingaction thereof. During the defrosting period the fan and blower are idleso that warm air is not forced into the food compartment and will besupportedby the more dense cold air therewith a suitable thermostat 81for controlling the refrigeration mechanism 51 and the fan motor 53. Thethermostat 81 also controls the flow of current to a signal lamp 84 toindicate when the temperature in the cabinet is reaching a dangerouspoint due to breakdown of the system or current supply.

The food compartment is provided. of cmirse.

gifagg'series of reload signal lights BB are also provided.' one beingpositioned over each of the doors i9. These lights indicate -to theoperator when the merchandise behind that particular door needsreplacing. This is accomplished by allowing a tilting arm 66 to rest onthe row of packages at the desired point for indication. As long asthere is a package beneath. the arm Si, the circuit to that signal light85 will be open.v As soon as the last package passes from beneath thearm 466, the latter will tilt a mercury switch 88 downwardly to closethe circuit to that particular signal light 65. thus indicating to theoperator that that particular compartment needs relling.

Instead of placing the signal lights over the individual doors, they maybe placed in an annunciator box 12, as shown in Fig. 9, wherein theindividual compartment signal lights are shown at 65' and the cabinettemperature signal light is shown at 64'. An alternate constructionwhich may be used in place of the terminal iitting 38 is illustrated inFigs. 10, 11, and 12. This construction employs a slide frame 13 whichis mounted on the inside of the door within the insulating blockthereon. The slide'frame acts as a guide for a nut member 14 which isthreaded on a threaded rod 15. The rod 15 is rotatably mounted in anysuitable manner, such as by means of an ear 16 on the frame 13. l v

Rotation of the rod 15 causes the nut member 14 to travel along theframe 13. The rod may be rotated by means of head 11, which isaccessible when the door is opened. The cable 31 is attached to a crosspin 18 in the nut member 1I. This accomplishes the same purpose as thebending pin l i that is, it regulates the length of the stroke of therack bar 30 to accommodate packages of different thicknesses. The strokecan be preset by means of a thickness scale 19 on the inner face of thedoor, there being a pointer 80 mounted on the nut member 1t forindicating positions on the scale 19.

While'a speciiic form of the improvement has been described andillustrated herein, it is desired to be understood that the same maybevaried,

- within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from thespirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired securedby Letters Patent is:

1. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: a cabinet; arefrigerating medium; a fan forcing air through said refrigeratingmedium and into said cabinet; means for returning air from said cabinetto said fan; a plurality of doors opening through the front of saidcabinet; means for supporting a row of the packages within said cabinetin alignment with each of said doors; means for forcing each row of saidpackages forwardly when that respective door is opened, and means forsupplying air from the exterior to said fan when the pressure in thecabinet falls below a predetermined point.

2. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: a cabinet; arefrigerating medium; a fan forcing air through said refrigeratingmedium and into said cabinet; means for returning air from said cabinetto said fan; a plurality of doors opening throughthe front of saidcabinet; means for supporting a row of the packages within said cabinetin alignment with each of said doors; means for forcing each row of saidApackages forwardly when that respective door is opened; andmotor-operated means for supplying air from the ing means incorporatedin said refrigerating means for heating the latter; and a time-operatedswitch mechanism for,closing a circuit to said heating means and openinga circuit to the fan at pre-set intervals.

4. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: an insulatedcabinet; an insulated cooling chamber in said cabinet; a cooling elementin said chamber; a fan for forcing air past said cooling element forcooling and dehydrating the air;

a package compartment in said cabinet; a passage communicating betweensaid cooling compartment and said package compartment for thetransmission of cooled, dehydrated air thereto: a return duct in saidpackage compartment positioned to return air from the packagecompartment to said fan; and means for dispensing packages of frozenfoods from said package compartment.

5. A 'dispenser for fro-zen food packages com-l prising: an insulatedcabinet; an insulated cooling chamber in said cabinet; a cooling elementin said chamber; a fan for forcing air past said cooling element forcooling and dehydrating the air; a package compartment in said cabinet;a passage communicating between said cooling compartment and saidpackage compartment for the transmission of cooled, dehydratedairthereto; a return duct in said package compartment positioned toreturn air from the package compartment to said fan; means fordispensing packages of rozen'foods from said package compartment; amotor-operated pressure blower; and an intake conduit to said blowerfrom the exterior of said cabinet for intaking outside air, thedischarge from said blower being fed to said fan.

6. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: an insulatedcabinet; an insulated cooling chamber in said cabinet; a cooling elementin saidchamber; a fan for forcing air past said cooling element forcooling and dehydrating the air; a package compartment in said cabinet;a passage communicating between said cooling compartment and saidpackage compartment vfor the transmission of cooled. dehydrated airthereto: a plurality of package openings in the front of said cabinet; adoor closing each of said openings; means for supporting a row ofpackages in alignment with each package opening; and means operable byeach door for forcing the row of packages aligned with that doorforwardly when the door is opened.

"I. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: an insulatedcabinet; an insulated cooling chamber in said cabinet; a cooling elementin said chamber; a fan for forcing air past said cooling element forcooling and dehydrating the air; a package compartment in said cabinet;a passage communicating. between said cooling compartment and saidpackage compartment for the transmission of cooled. dehydrated airthereto; a return duct in said package compartment positioned to returnair from the package compartment. to said fan; and means for dispensingpackages of frozen foods from said package compartment, said ilrstpassage being positioned adjacent the front of said cabinet, and saidreturn duct being placed adjacent the rear of said cabinet.

8. A dispenser for frozen foodpackages comprising: a cabinet; a packagecompartment in said cabinet; a cooling compartment in said cabinet; acooling coil in said cooling compartment; a fan positioned adjacent therear of said cooling compartment and forcing air forwardly through saidcoil toward the front of said cablnet; a passage at the front of saidcabinet. communicating between said cooling compartment and said packagecompartment; and a vertical return duct positioned at the back of saidpackage compartment and communicating at its upper extremity to theintake side of said'ian, there being openings in said return ductvertically a fan positioned adjacent the rear of said coolingcompartment and forcing air forwardly through said coil toward the frontof said cabinet; a passage at the front of said cabinet communicatingbetweenA said cooling compartment and said package compartment; `Va,vertical return duct positioned at the back of s`a2id packagecompartment and communicating at its upper extremity to the intake sideof said fan.4 there being openings in said return duct vertically spacedthroughout its length within said package compartment, said openingsincreasing in size as the bottom of said package compartment isapproached; and motor-operated pressure means for drawing exterior airinto said cooling compartment rearwardly of said fan.

11. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: a cabinet; arefrigerating medium; a

.spaced throughout its length within said package compartment.

9. A dispenser for frozen food packages coml prising: a cabinet; apackage compartment in said cabinet; a cooling compartment in saidcabinet; a cooling coil in said cooling compartment; a fan positionedadjacent the rear of said cooling compartment and'forcing air forwardlythrough said coil toward the front of said cabinet; a passage at thefront of said cabinet communicating between said cooling compartment andsaid package compartment; and a vertical return duct positioned at theback of said package compartment and communicating. at its upperextremity to the .intake side of said fan, there being openings in saidreturn duct vertically spaced throughout its length within said packagecompartment, said openings increasing in size as the bottom of saidpackage compart.

ment is approached.

10. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: a cabinet; apackage compartment in said cabinet; a cooling compartment in saidcabinet; a cooling coil in said cooling compartment;

`fan forcing air through said refrigerating medium and into saidcabinet; means for returning air from said cabinet to said fan; aplurality of doors opening through the front of said cabinet; means forsupporting a row of the packages within said cabinet in alignment witheach of said doors; means for forcing each row of said packagesforwardly when that respective door is opened; a peripheral channelabout said opening; sealing strips in said channel surrounding saidopening; exible skirts projecting from said sealing strips so as tocontact the packages passing through said opening; and means forsecuri'ng said strips in said peripheral channel.

MILTON RIFKIN.

EFEaENcEsc-:rrnn

The following references are of record in the ille of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS -40 Number Name Date 2,137,822 Gilmore Nov. 22,1938 2,315,515 'Gibson Apr. 16, 1943 2,382,084 Mathews Aug. 14, 19452,389,619 Green Nov. 27, 1945

